Arctic Sea Ice Sonification (2017)

Sea ice in the Beaufort Sea; August 2013 (photo: Judy Twedt)

This digital soundtrack sonifies the satellite record of Arctic Sea Ice extent -- an index of total ice cover in the Arctic Ocean -- from 1979 to 2016. Unlike Arctic Sea Ice (2018), this soundtrack use the absolute value of sea ice, not the deviation from the long-term average, so you hear the growth each winter and melt each summer. Each note represents one month of data. High pitch indicates more ice that month. Low pitch indicates more summer melt.The volume for all 12 months of the year is controlled by that year's summer minimum. In this way, you can hear both the monthly variations, and the year-to-year changes.I overlaid natural sound recordings of waves, ships, and bowhead whales recorded by Kate Stafford, oceanographer at UW Applied Physics Lab. Visit the National Snow and Ice Data Center to learn more. Listen, below, on soundcloud.This piece was inspired by a sea-ice symposium at the University of Washington in July, 2017.

The Deafening Rise of Carbon Pollution is an infosonic about the Keeling Curve -- a famous measurement of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) that began in 1958. The monthly concentration of CO2 is represented by the pitch of each note.

Carbon Dioxide is the primary driver of global warming today.

This piece was co-created with Dargan Frierson.

The Sound of Earth's Fever

The Sound of Earth's Fever is a sonic interpretation of the global mean surface temperature index, using NASA's GISS temperature record.We pause the music in 1977 to draw attention to the warming that has occurred since then. This is about when Exxon began using misleading public communication about the risks of carbon pollution.